Tag Archives: Raspberry Pi

This $172 Raspberry Pi Handheld Doubles as a USB Keyboard

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The Raspberry Pi Compute Module has always been more useful as a component than as a standalone board. Stripped of the standard ports that make the full-size Pi easy to reach, the CM5 was designed to disappear into purpose-built hardware, doing exactly what a system needs it to do in exactly the space available. That modularity invites projects, and Pi handheld computers have been a natural expression of it for years. Most of them never quite cross the line from capable experiment to genuinely polished device.

The piBrick Pocket-CM5 is an open-source hardware project that comes significantly closer than most. Built from a custom PCB designed for manufacturing at JLCPCB, a 3D-printed shell, and a parts list that totals around $172, it lands at smartphone proportions, 80mm x 145mm x 19.6mm, with the kind of feature density that makes it credible as a daily carry tool rather than a desk ornament.

Designer: Ahmad Amarullah

The display is a 3.92-inch AMOLED panel running at 1080 × 1240 pixels and 90Hz, with 560 nits of brightness and capacitive multitouch for up to five fingers. A custom Asahi Tempered Glass cover sits over the top, which is the kind of detail that separates a considered design from a prototype that happens to work. Full-size and micro-HDMI outputs mean the same device can drive an external display, when a keyboard and mouse are more useful than a pocket-sized one.

That keyboard is a BBQ20, a compact QWERTY design with an integrated trackpad derived from the BlackBerry layout. Side rotary encoders and five user-programmable buttons extend the input options beyond a standard phone form factor, giving the device a tactile depth that touchscreen-only handhelds don’t have. The battery is a 5,000mAh LiPo, and the USB port set covers both USB 3 and USB 2 in Type-A and Type-C configurations, plus an internal expansion header for add-on modules.

One of the more quietly useful features sits at the intersection of the keyboard and the USB stack. The BBQ20 can operate in USB-HID mode, which means plugging the piBrick into any external computer or server turns its keyboard and trackpad into a fully functional USB input device, independent of the Pi. A sysadmin arriving at a server rack without a spare keyboard doesn’t need to find one; the piBrick already is one. That framing, as a tool for engineers and sysadmins rather than simply a hobbyist novelty, runs through the whole project.

A full Linux desktop runs on the CM5, alongside the system administration and networking tools that tend to be useful in those situations. NVMe SSD support in 2230 or 2242 formats adds storage headroom when the SD card isn’t enough. Stereo speakers, a microphone, and an optional camera module round out a spec sheet that covers more ground than the form factor suggests. The project files, schematics, and build instructions are all available as open source, which means the $172 cost is the floor, not a retail price, and the design itself belongs to anyone who wants to build on it.

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This pocket-sized cyberdesk built inside Altoids Tin is a portable workstation for geeks

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What do you do with your Altoids tins after devouring the mints? Maybe for keeping your coins, hand it over to your mom for storing the sewing accessories, for keeping handy a first aid, or perhaps keep the watercolor paint for your little niece. DIYer “Exercising Ingenuity,” however, has a very unique use for the aluminium container.

The inventive YouTuber wanted to build a fully functional Cyberdesk inside of the Altoids tin. Sounds bizarre? Surely it is, given the size of the thing. In his video, he asked himself, “That looks like a tiny computer?” It was clear from the outset that the assembly would require the utmost level of detail and sourcing all the hardware inside the tiny housing. While it might not be the most powerful machine you can own, it surely is ultra-portable and quite nice nonetheless.

Designer: Exercising Ingenuity

Normally, Cyberdesks are built inside ammo cans, rugged Pelican cases, or anything that has a boxy form factor. The machines piqued in popularity during the 1980s after the science fiction novel Neuromancer. Altoid tins have all these attributes, just the smaller size makes them a very odd proposition in the Cyberdesk world. That said, he set out anyway on putting together the hardware. For the CPU, he used the Raspberry Pi Zero W he had lying around, and a 2-inch LCD from another unfinished project. The power comes from a 750mAh lithium-ion polymer battery.

The real challenge was to find the tiny mechanical keyboard and fit it inside the small space. According to him, this was the most enjoyable part of the project, even though the video suggests it was a difficult one. It required learning how to construct the diode matrix for configuring the input, along with the assembling and soldering methodology of each of the keys. The final step here involved painting the keys with a white ink pen. Once this bit was taken care of, the DIY headed into the moderate level difficulty (at least for us). The next step was to create a 3D-printed frame to keep all the components inside the tin in place.

Wiring had to be kept to a minimum, and soldering of other components had to be done efficiently, as space was a premium. As a last step to make more room for components like the UPS HAT board and the display, the original hinge was extended with another Altoids tin hinge for a makeshift, slightly bigger replacement. Once all the hardware components were secured properly inside the tin, it was just a matter of running the system using the software. To make the thing look and feel like a vintage desktop computer, the DIYer painted the front panel beige.

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DIY Raspberry Pi Camera Turns Your Photos into Glitch Art, and the Results Are Incredible

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You currently have two options if you want to apply effects and filters to your photos: use an app that will inevitably harvest your data for training their AI model (we’re watching you, Instagram), or actually edit your photos manually, which requires time, software subscriptions, and the patience of a saint. Reddit user sharkbiscuit101 unlocked a third option, and it involves a Raspberry Pi 4, a rotary encoder, a gamepad, and a frankly unreasonable amount of ingenuity. The build produces glitch photography on the pixel level, in real time, through a custom script running entirely offline on hardware you can source yourself. No cloud upload, no terms of service, and crucially, no algorithm deciding what your creative output should look like. This is your camera, running your parameters, answering to nobody.

The camera itself works exactly how you’d want a dedicated glitch tool to work. Hit the shutter button, but before you do, twist the rotary dial to control how aggressively the Pi’s script mangles the RGB channels of whatever you’re pointing at. The result lands somewhere between a corrupted memory card and a fever dream, and the specific character of the glitch is entirely yours to tune through on-screen sliders before you commit to a shot. A small preview screen shows you the live feed so you can watch the image fall apart in real time, which is exactly as satisfying as it sounds. The rotary encoder also handles preset saves, so when you find a combination of settings that produces something genuinely beautiful and broken, you can lock it in and recall it later.

Designer: sharkbiscuit101

The physical design is wonderfully unashamed about what it is. A transparent acrylic chassis sandwich holds the Pi 4 and an Arducam module at the center, with a small HDMI screen on the front face showing the preview, and a Adafruit gamepad breakout board mounted beside it for navigation. A Sharge battery pack, the rectangular kind you’d find at Amazon, clamps to the side and handles power duties. Since the Pi 4 has no dedicated power button, the battery’s own switch becomes the on-off toggle, which is one of those practical workarounds that somehow feels more elegant than a purpose-built solution. Brass standoffs hold the whole sandwich together, giving the build a satisfying mechanical solidity that belies its component-bin origins.

Sharkbiscuit101 hasn’t released the script or component list publicly yet, though the Reddit thread is essentially one long, enthusiastic demand that they do exactly that. The sample images they’ve posted, saturated cascades of cyan and red over a person’s silhouette, a park scene dissolved into chromatic noise, a building rendered in kaleidoscopic symmetry, make a compelling case for why people want to replicate this. When the files do drop, expect a flood of variations, because this is precisely the kind of open-ended hardware that the maker community will run with in seventeen different directions simultaneously.

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Two Makers Just Built the Pocket Linux PC Big Tech Refused To Make

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The commercial laptop market has gotten good at making portable computers slim and powerful, but it hasn’t quite figured out what to do with people who want something truly pocketable. A growing number of DIY enthusiasts have taken matters into their own hands, building compact personal computers known as cyberdecks from scratch, and the results have been growing increasingly polished and impressive.

The CyberFold is a recent and remarkably polished example of just that. Made by a pseudonymous duo going by Eggfly and MeiYao, it’s a foldable clamshell cyberdeck that bears a striking resemblance to an oversized Nintendo Game Boy Advance SP. But flip it open, and what you’ll find inside is a surprisingly capable Linux computer, complete with a touchscreen, a full QWERTY keyboard, stereo speakers, and a proper port selection.

Designers: Eggfly, MeiYao

The computing heart of the CyberFold is a custom motherboard that accepts the Raspberry Pi Compute Module family, specifically the Compute Module 4, Compute Module 5, or the affordable Compute Module Zero. These are the embedded variants of the popular Raspberry Pi 4 and Raspberry Pi 5, shrunk to a compact form factor without sacrificing real processing power, making them a natural fit for a pocketable machine.

Open the CyberFold mid-commute or at a workbench, and you’re greeted by a 1024×768 capacitive multi-touch display, responsive enough for everyday computing and comfortable for touch-based navigation. Below it is a compact QWERTY silicone keyboard based on Solder Party’s open-source KeebDeck design, which Eggfly built from the original design files. It’s the kind of input that calls to mind old-school palmtop computers, but with a full operating system running underneath.

One of the more clever details on the CyberFold is the touchpad, which pulls double duty as a secondary display. Running on an Espressif ESP32-S3 microcontroller, it shows live battery percentage and power consumption data, independent of the main computer. It’s the kind of thoughtful feature you’d normally see on a commercial device that went through multiple rounds of product refinement, not something you’d expect from a maker’s personal project.

Connectivity isn’t something the CyberFold cuts corners on. Full-size USB 3.0 and USB 2.0 ports handle peripherals easily, while two HDMI outputs let you extend to a larger screen when needed. A microSD card slot, a debugging port, and stereo speakers flanking the display round things out, and a rotary encoder scroll wheel adds a satisfying tactile element to everyday navigation.

Power comes from a pair of batteries in an integrated holder with a built-in charging circuit, so you can top it off without cracking the device open. The clamshell form factor keeps the screen and keyboard protected when closed, making the whole thing practical enough to slip into any bag. Eggfly hasn’t released the design files publicly yet, but the maker community has already taken a keen interest.

There’s something appealing about the CyberFold that goes beyond its spec sheet. It represents a very specific kind of ambition: the desire to own a computer that fits in your jacket pocket, runs whatever software you choose, and was assembled by hand. Commercial products can maybe deliver two of those three things at best, and that gap is exactly what keeps the cyberdeck community building.

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A Maker Built a $200 Writing-Only Device Because He Couldn’t Sleep

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Writing on a laptop or phone is convenient, but it rarely stays that way. Notifications, browser tabs, and social media feeds have turned the most basic tasks into exercises in self-discipline. Writers, journalists, and anyone who just needs to put thoughts to paper have been searching for a better solution, and a growing community around dedicated, distraction-free writing devices called writerdecks has quietly been gaining momentum.

The Bee Write Back is one of the more charming entries in that space. Built by a maker named “shmimel”, the device grew out of a deeply personal need: he was having trouble sleeping and found that journaling helped, but couldn’t quite commit to a handwritten journal. So he did what any tinkerer would do and built his own dedicated writing machine from scratch.

Designer: Simon Shimel

The result is compact and immediately recognizable. Its 3D-printed enclosure comes in two tones: a bright yellow base that houses the electronics, and a matte black screen cover adorned with bee emblems. The whole thing has a hand-built charm that no mass-produced gadget can replicate, and it’s the kind of device that tends to make people stop and ask, “wait, what is that?”

At the heart of the typing experience is a YMDK Air40 keyboard PCB loaded with 47 hot-swappable mechanical switches and matching keycaps. For anyone who’s spent years on laptop chiclet keys or membrane keyboards, the tactile feedback of a proper mechanical switch changes everything. The satisfying click or thump of each keystroke becomes almost meditative, which is exactly what you want when words need to keep flowing.

The display is a 5.5-inch AMOLED panel at 1280 x 720 resolution, vivid enough for comfortable reading without the eye strain of a typical laptop screen. Powering it all is a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, with a quad-core Cortex-A53 chip, 512 MB of RAM, and built-in Wi-Fi. A Seengreat UPS Hat with an 18650 battery keeps everything running away from any wall outlet.

Boot it up, and you’re in Raspberry Pi OS Lite, a stripped-down Linux environment that loads fast and stays focused. There are no app stores, no notification bubbles, and no algorithms fighting for your attention. It’s the kind of thing you pull out before bed to journal, bring to a coffee shop to draft, or pack on a trip when you need a writing-only companion.

The creator made the entire project open source, with build files and a detailed assembly guide available on GitHub. The total material cost comes to roughly $200, excluding 3D printing costs. That puts it roughly in line with some off-the-shelf writing gadgets, but with the added satisfaction of building it yourself and the freedom to swap out parts, tweak the layout, or change the enclosure color entirely.

What makes the Bee Write Back worth paying attention to is less about its specs and more about what it deliberately leaves out. Most devices pack in as many features as possible, but shmimel’s creation goes the other direction: pare things down until only the writing remains. For anyone looking to reclaim the quiet, focused experience of putting words down without fighting their tools, that restraint speaks for itself.

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Waveshare Built a $149 Handheld That Runs Full Linux Without the Laptop

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The handheld computer has always been a compelling idea that rarely lives up to its promise. Smartphones are too locked down for real development work, and tablets occupy an awkward middle ground between a phone and a laptop. Pocket PCs, mini notebooks, and DIY computer builds have all tried to fill the gap, but each one compromised too heavily on usability or demanded too much assembly.

Waveshare’s PocketTerm35 takes a more deliberate approach, landing somewhere between a purpose-built tool and a proper portable computer. Compatible with the Raspberry Pi 4B and Pi 5, it wraps a complete Linux terminal experience into a handheld unit that’s ready to use right out of the box. Everything from the display and keyboard to the battery and connectivity is already integrated, so there’s nothing left to hunt down or assemble.

Designer: Waveshare

At 93.5mm x 168.5mm x 37mm, the PocketTerm35 fits comfortably in one hand, though it has enough weight to feel substantial rather than cheap. The front panel is CNC-machined aluminum, giving the face a solid, slightly industrial character. The rear is plastic, which helps keep the overall weight manageable. Status LEDs sit above the display, and dedicated boot and reset buttons are tucked on the back.

The 3.5-inch IPS touchscreen sits at a 640 × 480 resolution, which is modest by modern standards but appropriate for a terminal environment where text clarity matters more than pixel density. Optical bonding seals the glass to the panel, reducing reflections and making the screen usable outside without squinting. The 5-point capacitive touch surface sits under toughened glass with 6H hardness, which should hold up well against daily wear.

Below the screen is a 67-key QWERTY silicone keyboard laid out in a standard layout for typing commands, editing code, or navigating menus. A dedicated RP2040 microcontroller manages keyboard input, screen brightness, and volume, offloading those control tasks from the Raspberry Pi itself. The arrangement keeps the main processor free for heavier work, which is the kind of practical engineering detail that makes the difference in a device like this.

Power comes from a 5,000mAh lithium battery with a built-in UPS system that supports seamless switching between battery and external power without losing your session. You can run it plugged in at your desk, then pull the cable and walk away without any disruption to whatever’s running. It’s the kind of reliability that makes a handheld device genuinely trustworthy to use rather than just technically portable on paper.

Connectivity is where the PocketTerm35 avoids the usual compromises. Four USB-A ports and an RJ45 Ethernet jack handle wired needs, alongside a 3.5mm audio jack and a 2W built-in speaker. An I2C expansion header opens things up for custom hardware add-ons. It also supports RetroPie, so the same machine that handles a terminal session during a work trip can become a retro gaming console once the day is done, especially considering it has ABXY buttons.

The PocketTerm35 ships in a few configurations. The Pi5 variant includes a 1GB Raspberry Pi 5, a 64GB microSD card with the system preloaded, and the 5,000mAh battery, all for $148.99. A Pi 4B version is available for $179.99. Developers who’ve been carrying a laptop just to have a real terminal within reach might find the PocketTerm35 a far more sensible answer to that specific problem.

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This $146 Raspberry Pi 5 Case Has a Touchscreen and Runs AI Locally

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The Raspberry Pi has always been a tinkerer’s dream, a tiny board that can become almost anything with enough creativity. Over the years, its growing capabilities have attracted developers, home automation enthusiasts, and even edge AI experimenters who want real processing power in a compact, low-cost package. The persistent challenge has been housing all of that potential in something that looks and works like a proper desktop.

SunFounder’s Pironman 5 Pro Max takes a direct swing at that problem. It’s a dark anodized aluminum tower case designed exclusively for the Raspberry Pi 5, surrounding it with enough hardware to make it a genuinely capable desktop machine. The case and all its bundled accessories start at $145.99 without the Pi itself, which is a lot of kit for something technically sold as a bare enclosure.

Designer: SunFounder

The most visible feature is the 4.3-inch capacitive touchscreen on the front (or side, depending on your point of reference), giving direct, tactile access to whatever you’re running. Alongside it are a 5MP adjustable camera module, stereo speakers, a USB microphone, and a 3.5mm audio jack, all included in the box. Together, they open the door to voice interfaces, video recording, and interactive displays without requiring a single extra module or dangling cable.

Storage and AI expansion come from dual NVMe M.2 slots driven by a PCIe Gen 2 switch. They support RAID 0 for speed or RAID 1 for redundancy, making the Pironman a surprisingly capable home NAS. The same slots are also compatible with Hailo-8 and Hailo-8L AI accelerators for running local language models like DeepSeek or Ollama without a cloud connection.

SunFounder’s OpenClaw platform ties a lot of that together, letting you build a personal AI agent directly on the hardware. You can connect it to cloud-based services like ChatGPT and Gemini, or keep everything local with Grok, Ollama, and DeepSeek. It’s a bold pitch for a single-board computer, but one the Raspberry Pi 5’s improved architecture was quietly building toward.

Cooling is managed by a PWM tower cooler with dual RGB fans, keeping the Pi 5, NVMe drives, and any attached Hailo accelerator stable under sustained load. A front-facing OLED display shows real-time CPU usage, RAM, temperature, and IP address, while a metal power button handles safe shutdowns and an RTC battery holder supports projects that can’t afford unexpected downtime.

The chassis measures 140.9mm x 77.0mm x 138.7 mm and includes a GPIO extender, a spring-loaded microSD slot, rear USB 2.0 ports, and a 27W USB-C power input. It runs on Raspberry Pi OS, Ubuntu, Kali, and Homebridge OS, giving it the range to serve as a media center, development workstation, or smart home hub without needing to swap hardware between projects.

For $145.99, the Pironman 5 Pro Max is selling the hardware to build a finished computer around a board that already fits in your pocket. That gap between bare single-board computer and fully equipped desktop has always been the Raspberry Pi community’s favorite problem to tackle, and few cases have gone after it with quite this much ambition.

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This Raspberry Pi Camera Looks Like It Was Made in the 80s for 2050

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There’s a particular visual language that 1980s science fiction used for technology. It was chunky, industrial, and slightly alien in form, the kind of hardware that felt like it belonged on a spaceship more than in a pocket. That aesthetic has been largely absent from consumer electronics for decades, replaced by sleek glass rectangles and matte aluminum that all end up looking roughly the same.

A maker going by Yutani on Reddit has built something that resurrects that forgotten design language in the form of a functional digital camera. It’s called the Saturnix, and the concept is simple but strange: what would a camera look like if it were designed in the 1980s, not to look like what cameras looked like then, but to look like what cameras were imagined to eventually become?

Designer: Sf140/Yutani

The body is 3D printed and draws clear inspiration from the science fiction hardware of that era, specifically the industrial aesthetic of films like Alien. It’s chunky and deliberate by design. The five control buttons use mechanical Kailh switches, a choice the creator was specific about: “a camera should feel like a real tool, not a touchscreen.” The tactile feedback from each press reinforces exactly that.

Inside, the Saturnix runs on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2W paired with a 16-megapixel Arducam IMX519 autofocus sensor and a 2-inch IPS LCD viewfinder. It captures RAW and JPG simultaneously, with full manual controls covering shutter speeds from 30 seconds to 1/4000, ISO from 100 to 3200, and white balance and exposure compensation adjustments. Three autofocus modes round out the shooting options.

The film simulation engine is what separates the Saturnix from other DIY camera builds. Six presets are available, all processed on-device with no apps or cloud services involved. You can shoot with profiles mimicking Kodak Gold’s warm analog tones, the hyper-saturated punch of Kodak Ektar 100, the cool greens of Fujifilm 400, and the rich grain of Kodak Tri-X 400 black and white.

Filter: Kodak Gold

Filter: Fujifilm 400

Photo transfers happen via a built-in Wi-Fi hotspot, keeping the entire process completely self-contained. The entire project is open source. The code, STL files for the 3D-printed case, and sample outputs from each film simulator are all available on the Saturnix GitHub page under MIT and Creative Commons licenses, meaning anyone with a printer and the right components can build one. A firmware release hasn’t shipped yet, but the creator is actively developing it.

Filter: None

The Saturnix doesn’t compete with commercial cameras on paper, and it doesn’t try to. What it does is offer something most cameras, cheap or expensive, don’t bother with anymore: a strong point of view about what a camera should feel like to hold, use, and look at, from a set of aesthetics that mainstream design long since walked away from.

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This Foldable DIY Cyberdeck Has Breadboards Built In and Runs Doom

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Most portable computers are sealed boxes, which is exactly what makes them frustrating for anyone who wants to experiment with electronics. You can run code on a laptop, but try wiring a temperature sensor or an infrared transmitter directly to it, and you’ll realize that consumer hardware was never designed for that kind of access. A maker who goes by PickentCode got tired of that gap and built something to close it.

The CyberPlug 3.0 is the third iteration of a personal cyberdeck project, the earlier two having usability problems that sent PickentCode back to Blender to redesign. The final build packs a Raspberry Pi 4 Model B, a 4-inch IPS touchscreen, a Rii K06 mini keyboard with a built-in touchpad, and a 5,000 mAh USB-C power bank into a 3D-printed hinged body that folds flat for handheld use or props open at a desk-friendly angle.

Designer: PickentCode

What separates this from a standard Raspberry Pi build is the pair of breadboards soldered directly to the GPIO pins, seated inside the case, and accessible through a removable back panel. Connecting a sensor no longer means hunting for a separate breadboard and a tangle of jumper wires. PickentCode plugged in a temperature and humidity sensor and had it reading live data within minutes, then built an infrared setup that records remote control signals and replays them as single-button macros.

The two form factors each have a distinct locking mechanism rather than just flopping into position. In handheld mode, twin magnets pull the two halves together. In desktop mode, a metal ring on the back grabs the MagSafe-style power bank magnetically, holding the whole thing at a stable upright angle. Both the keyboard and the power bank slide out independently, and the deck keeps working on a desk without either of them.

Extensions are where the project gets more interesting. PickentCode added a PWM-controlled external fan that reads CPU temperature and adjusts speed automatically, and a small speaker module that opened the door to YouTube and older games. Doom, Half-Life, and GTA: Vice City all ran on it, better with an external setup in desktop mode, though workable in handheld after some button remapping.

PickentCode frames this plainly as a testbed for learning electronics, not a replacement for a phone or a real computer. The 3D files are free on Printables, so the main cost is filament, time, and the components. For anyone who has ever stared at a sealed laptop wishing they could just plug something into it, that framing is probably the most relatable thing about it.

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This DIY Cyberdeck With a 12-Inch Screen Actually Works Like a Laptop

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Most cyberdecks sit somewhere between prop and prototype, fun to look at but often awkward to use, with bolted-on parts and layouts that prioritize aesthetics over ergonomics. They’re conversation starters that rarely stay on the desk once the novelty wears off. This “CMDeck” build is interesting because it tries to behave like a real laptop-class machine you could actually reach for when you want to write or tinker.

Salim Benbouziyane’s core decision was to give the deck the footprint of a full-size keyboard, a wide clamshell that feels anchored instead of chunky. A 12-inch touch display sits up top, and a custom low-profile mechanical keyboard lives below, with a split ortholinear layout, central trackpad, and small OLED. It’s framed as a deliberate workspace rather than a random collection of parts that happened to fit in a box.

Designer: Salim Benbouziyane

The split ortho layout and central trackpad push your hands outward, leaving a clear middle zone for navigation and status. The low-profile switches and custom keycaps keep the deck thin enough to feel like a proper clamshell, while the OLED hints at system status without cluttering the surface. It’s a layout aimed at writing, coding, and multi-window work, not just showing off an unusual key arrangement that makes typing harder.

The enclosure journey is where the design process shows most clearly. The first CAD pass looked clean with all the I/O on the back, then immediately ran into reality when cables blocked the lid from opening. Salim carved clearances, added a removable rear section for assembly, and reworked hinge mounts after early prototypes ripped screws out. The heavy display forced him to add brass weights so the deck could open fully without tipping backward.

The decision to make the bottom shell translucent purple is a nod to transparent tech nostalgia that also turns the internals into part of the visual identity. Resin-printed and CNC-finished parts give the case a smooth, almost commercial feel, while PETG support structures and brass inserts handle the mechanical load. It’s a mix of show and structure that makes flipping the deck over as interesting as opening it to type.

Small interaction details make it feel finished. Riser modules tilt the keyboard and improve airflow, magnets in the lid help keep it closed, and the touch display keeps the deck usable even when the keyboard is borrowed by another machine through a special USB port. These are the kinds of decisions that make the deck feel like a finished object rather than a one-off experiment you’d be afraid to actually use daily.

The project took months of iteration, from fighting ribbon cables to reprinting support structures and swapping coolers, all in service of a form factor that feels right on a desk. The result is a cyberdeck that invites everyday use, especially for writing and side-by-side windows, and a reminder that the most interesting DIY builds now are as much about industrial design as they are about electronics, where getting the hinge geometry right matters just as much as the circuitry underneath.

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